“Beyond black”, in the sense I mean it, is something or someone black with an appeal that goes way beyond Black America. Like Tiger Woods or disco. Everyone still thinks of them as black but their appeal is general, not just mainly to blacks.
Here is my list. I will explain the numbers in a minute.
beyond black:
- 0: Jimi Hendrix, Dr Dre
- 1: gangsta rap, Michael Jordan, Ice Cube, Charlie Parker, Lebron James, Akon
- 2: disco, Lenny Kravitz, Destiny’s Child, Tupac Shakur
- 3: Mariah Carey, Tiger Woods, Donna Summer, Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, John Coltrane
- 4: hip hop, Barack Obama, Rihanna, Mike Tyson, Mos Def, Stevie Wonder, Kanye West
- 5: Oprah, Michael Jackson, Bryant Gumbel, Nas, Thelonius Monk, Billie Holiday, Bo Diddley, Carmelo Anthony, Diddy, Taye Diggs, Chuck D, Teena Marie
black:
- 6: Diana Ross, James Earl Jones, Janet Jackson, Tyra Banks, Toni Morrison, Alicia Keys, Smokey Robinson, Spike Lee, Naomi Campbell, Lauryn Hill, T-Pain, Lil Wayne, Sade, Jay-Z, Chris Rock, John McWhorter, Usher, Alexyss Tylor, Amy Holmes
- 7: XXL, Chaka Khan, Ciara, Whoopi Goldberg, Will Smith, Faith Evans, James Baldwin, Alice Walker, Young Jeezy, Chris Brown, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Star Jones, Dave Chapelle, Gladys Knight
- 8: dreadlocks, Michelle Obama, Erykah Badu, Zora Neale Hurston, Marvin Gaye, James Brown, Mary J Blige, Ralph Ellison, Thandie Newton, Tina Turner, Maya Angelou, Vanessa Williams
- 9: r&b, natural hair, Beyonce, Kelly Rowland, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Patti LaBelle, Aretha Franklin, Denzel Washington, Flavor of Love, Richard Wright, Lisa Bonet, Melyssa Ford, Esther Baxter, King magazine, Eddie Murphy, Flavor Flav, Hoopz
- 10: weave, Jill Scott, Buffie the Body, Gabrielle Union, Angela Bassett, Halle Berry, Nia Long
Notice that Destiny’s Child is beyond black but Beyonce is not. Barack Obama is beyond black, but his wife is not.
I am surprised at some of this: I thought Angela Bassett and Will Smith would be beyond black and Tupac would not. But I cannot trust my own judgement: after all, I thought most Americans knew who Nia Long and T-Pain were.
What the numbers mean: on the Google Insights website you can find out which ten states are most interested in a given search. The number above is how many of those ten states were among the 12 blackest states.
Something that interests Americans in general regardless of race should get a rating of 2 or 3. Less than that means it probably appeals to whites more than blacks; more than that means it probably interests blacks more.
Google does not know the race of its users but it does know which state they came from. So this is as near as you can get to it.
The 12 blackest states are the chain of states from New York to New Orleans by way of Atlanta, throwing out New Jersey but throwing in Tennessee: New York, Delaware, Maryland, DC, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana – and Tennessee.
So, for example, of the ten states where users are most likely to search for “Jill Scott” all ten were among the 12 blackest states. For “Jimi Hendrix” none were.
Google Insights shows a map. It is striking how the black belt of states shows up for some searches. That is what gave me the idea. (There are other patterns too, like liberal states, but that is another post.)
See also:
Interesting list!
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Fascinating stuff!
Thanks for giving me a new website to immortalize! It will be great for research in the future.
I’m not surprised about the results at all. But I’m surprised that Denzel wasn’t higher in “general interest”.
As I said in another post, the mainstream is far more receptive of Beyonce Knowles as a member of Destiny’s Child than as a solo artist. Her record sales and low concert attendance prove that. So, she and Halle Berry weren’t a surprise at all.
2Pac …he’s one in the top 5 of highest selling black musical artists in the U.S. (Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, and Prince round out that list, according to the RIAA). No surprise that he’s “beyond black” in terms of general popularity.
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Two more:
Usher Raymond- 6 out 10. Intrestingly, if you look at the map, the “high” index searches for him were mostly in heavily black Southern states. The “medium” and “low” ones were in overwhelming white or more “mixed” states. Intresting.
Chris Brown- 8 out 10. That makes sense. The overwhelming majority of his fanbase are young black females.
Wow, I can go on and on all day. LOL.
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OK, OK, OK …I promise not to bother you anymore.
Another interesting pattern:
Current NBA players, superstar ones, seem to score very low all across the country in terms of “search index”.
Ex: Lebron James, one of the most publicized NBA superstars, scored “low” all across the country except for his home state of Ohio, the only place where he DIDN’T score “low”. Intrestingly though, only 1 or 2 of the states in the top 10 were “black belt” ones.
Same results for Carmelo Anthony.
Things are never what you expect, huh?
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I was sad to hear that Bo Diddley died. That guy had an amazing career and life. And I just loved his guitar, the Twang Machine. It looked so cool and unusual for a guitar! He sure could make is sing.
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I know, I said I’d “give it a rest” but this is interesting. LOL.
When was the time period, for your searches? From 2004-to present? Or from the last year?
Another:
Akon- 1 out of 10. He’s “medium” and “high”, all over the country. That’s more than Usher or Chris Brown, by far.
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I did 2004-2008.
I also avoided historical figures like Rosa Parks because I noticed they peaked in Februaries – meaning school reports, which would affect the results.
I am going to add Usher, etc. Thanks.
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Good call with Rosa Parks. It’s probably the same with MLK, Jr. and Malcolm X.
Now, here’s the only tricky thing …Lebron, Derek Jeter, Carmelo and some other black athletes. By the topic’s logic, they’d be “beyond black” as only 1-3 “black belt” states appeared in their top 10.
But overall, by indication of the map, they scored very little interest (low search volume) in most of the country. What do you make of that?
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Two more:
Vanessa Williams-8 out of 10
Dave Chappelle-7 out of 10 (surprising; most of Chappelle Show’s viewers and fans were white)
Eddie Murphy- 9 out of 10
Thandie Newton- 8 out of 10
Tina Turner- 8 (surprising)
Diddy- 5 out of 10
Dr. Dre- 0 (not surprising)
Flava Flav- 6
Maya Angelou- 8
Taye Diggs- 5
Cuba Gooding, Jr.- 7
Star Jones- 7
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I added those too. That is surprising about Tina Turner. And funny about Dr Dre (but not surprising).
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Sports figures: the search volumes are relative. The rest of the country scores low because it cannot possibly match the intensity of interest their home states have for them.
You see the same thing if you type in the name of any state. Californians are just way more interested in California than anyone else. The same with Yankee fans and Derek Jeter.
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Interesting list. I used to think everyone had heard of Nia Long, as well. I think I just really really really loved Love Jones.
Not surprised at some tho. Cool idea.
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Wow, from the “why doesn’t that surprise me” file:
Type in the word “Nigger”, and search results for the year 2008. 5 out of 10 of the top states are famously majority-white, with West Virginia, which was 94% white as of the last census count, ranking as the #1 state with the highest regional interest.
What was the 7th top search involving the word around the country? (the word has a high/medium search volume in every state, especially in some majority white and deep south ones):
“Obama nigger”.
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Interesting how so many of the hard-core nigger states like West Virginia are just outside to the black belt.
I searched on “weave”, “natural hair” and “dreadlocks”:
8 dredlocks
9 natural hair
10 weave
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Alvin Lau on tiger woods – and his disappoint in tiger woods and what he could have represented to biracial people.
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Looking at your list with regards to musicians – I noticed that the higher their number (patti labell) the more recently I have listened to their music. I am know for mixing my R&B in with some country – classical and then some head banging heavy metal though…But I was just listening to Patti this AM and then saw this post.
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Sorry – I always have one more comment after I hit submitt
Did you seach on Billie Holiday?
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Billie is there – under 5.
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Davida: That Alvin Lau video was great! Thanks.
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Intresting I would have put Destiny’s Child as Black and Beyonce as beyond Black.
Taye Diggs is definetly beyond black he washed his hands off black people and black women a long time ago when he blamed the dimise of his TV show on Black women back in 2006
He show got cancelled becasue of low ratings and he claimed that black women did not want to watch becasue he is married to a white woman. Like black american women all had a secrect meeting in a hair salon and said they were boycotting his show. LOL
http://juiicyscoop.blogspot.com/2006/12/taye-diggs-and-black-women.html
The thing is I just found out he was married and had a child last month (a child who he nicknamed “swirl” becasue he is a chocolate vanilla swirl, yeah I know) and I didn’t even know he had a show besides Kevin Hill which I never watched because it aired at odd hours and didn’t seem all that to me.
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